13 Jan 2014

Seventy-year-old Kuteewe Yesbestus is a typical Herero old man who never fails to carry an Okapi knife wherever he goes. And he has a rich anecdote why he and other Baherero men have knives hanging from their belts all the time.

Born at Ingondo settlement near Makunda village in the Ghanzi district, Mr Yesbestus knows very well what it can mean to be without a knife where a beast is being skinned. And he vividly remembers how one day he had returned empty handed after no one gave him meat just because he did not have a knife to join in the skinning of a cow.

“That day I learnt a lesson and I have never repeated the same mistake ever since. In the Herero culture, no man would ever lend another man his knife particularly when skinning an animal, ” he said in an interview as he looked fondly at the Three Star Okapi knife he was holding.

He said it was a given punishment to be denied a share of the meat after the skinning of an animal if you did not have a knife. That was considered very important under the Herero culture. Mr Yesbestus said women also undermined a Herero man who did not carry a knife around.

One is reminded of an old style in which gentleman made a receding hair line down the head just to look cool. And you had to be somebody and not just a jack or harry to spot such a style. Not common anymore, the hairline style was popular particularly with the well-off people including, of course some politicians of the time. The famous South African liberation struggle champion and former President, the late Dr Nelson Mandela had one.

When cell phones arrived in the late 1990s, hanging the sensational communication device in a pouch from your belt was a fashion statement and status symbol that also gave the guy next to you an idea of who you were. Although the trend, like others before it, has gone into the chasm of time, we still have some diehards who continue to have their cell phones hanging from their belts. Not that there is anything wrong with that; after all it’s a question of choice.

Having stood the test of time, the Baherero knife carrying trend seems to be peculiar, although not entirely, to the tribe, whether this is a stereotype or not, but it seems so. The Okapi brand has generally been adopted as an essential tool and assert in the lives of Baherero and it is kept in a special pouch made of an animal skin.
Its wide use includes skinning, meat cutting, and livestock ear marking to guard against cattle thieves as the Baherero are ardent cattle farmers.

The knife is also used as weapon for protection and self-defence in case they were attacked and needed to protect themselves or to instil fear on others.  Mr Yesbestus said under the Herero culture, it would be a serious offence for one to touch another man’s knife: “Even our wives will no dare unless there is a special agreement. The knife is only given to a trusted person and stealing a knife is a serious offence under the Herero culture, he said, adding that the knife, as a weapon, is not for killing people as some people may think. He explained that before a boy is allowed to carry a knife, he undergoes an extensive induction to prepare him for the task to avoid issues of people not using the knife properly or for its intended purpose.

“The way you behave when you have a gun in your house is the same way you should behave when you have a knife,” he added. Baherero’s passion is not limited to a knife only, they also love men’s hats, walking sticks and guns, which are normally inherited by the brother rather than the son like it is case with other cultures, said Mr Yesbestus.

He said during the olden days their knives were made from corrugated iron, or ‘oruvzo’ in Herero, because there were no modern knives like nowadays.

Carrying a knife under the Herero culture starts when a boy attains the age of 15 years of age because at that age he is considered a man who can have a family to protect, said the old man. Mr Yesbestus’ wife concurred with her husband that Herero women would look down on a Herero man who moves around without a knife.

“He is not regarded as a man because he cannot protect or fend for the family,” she said. Ms Yesbestus said since she married her husband some 30 years ago, she has never touched his knife.

“I have bought myself my own table knives which I use in the house. I don’t want trouble,” she said. Since modernity has taken over many cultural practices, the Herero waist knife practice seems to have faded away as young people seem not to be too keen about it.

However, there are still those Baherero men who still stick to the culture though in less numbers than before. ENDS